[ambrose]

No, he's right on the money. The biggest sticking point to a trip to Mars isn't getting there, but getting back.

[hopespringseternal]

The biggest sticking point to a trip to Mars isn't getting there, but getting back.

Getting back is harder, but hardly impossible. Using a combination of earth orbit rendezvous, mars orbit rendezvous and mars surface rendezvous, we may be able to do it with current launchers, given that we have to get the Russians to launch the crew. Mars direct ascent isn't doable in the forseeable future, but I don't know why you would want to do it that way anyway.